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And then he met Christ
Sasha was a fear-filled, hard-drinking man for almost 46 years.
For most of those years, he was also clueless about God.
But all of that changed when Sasha met the
Lord. As Christ began working in his life, and in the lives
of his family, he felt a new purpose. Sasha declares, “The
Lord called me to work in His vineyard.”
A skeptic’s dilemma
And so, the Bible League accepted Sasha into
a group being trained as church planters. But the decision
to accept him was met with some skepticism. The Bible League’s
director in this region of Russia admits to serious doubts
he had at the time.
“When I first met Sasha,” he recalls, “my
initial thought was, ‘Is this the best we can do in finding
people to establish new churches—someone who was an alcoholic
nearly his entire life?’”
But God saw the potential in Sasha that
the director couldn’t.
Disappearing books and vanishing fears
In his first training seminar, Sasha learned how to use the
Bible League’s evangelism and discipleship program.
He received 10 copies of study booklets designed to introduce
Russians to the Bible and bring them into fellowship with
Christ and His Church. These booklets quickly disappeared
as the eager church planter began to share them with his
community.
The once-skeptical director reports, “Sasha
returned to the office a few days later asking for 40 more
booklets. He came back several times during that first month.
People were welcoming him with joy and
were interested in learning more about the Bible! The next month, he was back
again to share testimonies of those who had accepted the
Lord. He wanted to pick up New Testaments for them.
“Life in the village in which he’s working has
changed! This recovering alcoholic is now talking about spiritual
issues with city administrators. People are coming to Sasha
for advice. Now he’s working in another village, too.”
Powerful lesson
The Regional Director had learned an important lesson. “God
can use the ‘insignificant’ of this world for His
glory,” he says. “Today I can whole-heartedly
say that I am grateful that the Lord sent us this man whose
abilities I doubted when he first arrived. I am grateful to God that
he is using people like Sasha, together with the Bible League
and its partners, to fill His world with His glory.”
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An
unlikely disciple